Cat And Mouse
by Bloodlustful
Summary: Post-movie. There is a crucial voyage that Jim is accompanying Captain Amelia's crew on along with his mother, and he comes across an adventurer mouse who agrees to join that voyage, but said mouse hates Captain Amelia for being a cat upon meeting her. What will that mean, for the voyage or otherwise? Rated M for blood, graphic parts, language and scenes of prejudice.


Hi, there!

How are you, Treasure Planet fans?

As you might recall, I was making that "Sick As A Cat" story, which I started last night.

Problem is, I don't have time to think up the perfect way to start the next chapter of that eight chapter story, at least not right now, anyway.

So I'm giving a third "Treasure Planet" story, and this one is focused around my favorite character, namely Captain Amelia Smollett Doppler, as well.

A bit predictable, but hey, I just love her that much, the fact that I've been, for the most part, pretty damn mean to her in what I've written about her previously notwithstanding.

Anyhow, this is a story in which two OCS of mine are made, though the second one will be introduced at the beginning of the end of this story, and the first one is a talking mouse adventurer(think an animated, regular mouse sized version of Reepicheep from the fifth installment of "The Chronicles Of Narnia" titled "The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader", but dark gray in fur color instead of light brown mixed with light gray like Reepicheep is, and he's armed with a tiny flintlock along with a just as small sword, while his gold circlet has a jade feather instead of a crimson one)named Ian Leland(I chose to use Ian as his first name because Sir Ian McKellen is one of my favorite actors of all time, due in no small part to how excellently he portrays Magneto in the "X-Men" movies).

He's agreed to join a very important voyage in which, of course, Captain Amelia is in charge in order to find and take a very powerful bomb as so to forever keep it confined in a metal cage deep in an underground laboratory's basement to make sure it can never be set off, since it is, as I said before, very powerful, and, if in the wrong hands, can be a lethal tool of evil.

This has all been told to him by Jim Hawkins, who is part of the voyage and intending to lend a helping hand after the two met by chance and Jim saw that Ian was definitely a traveler and warrior mouse, but Jim failed to mention that the captain was a cat, something he'll come to wish he hadn't forgotten to do later on(I wonder why).

Anyhow, what will it mean when Ian meets up with the crew and finds out that Captain Amelia is a felid and reacts like you would expect any mouse to upon seeing any cat, particularly since, ironically, he doesn't know the first thing about her outside of the fact she's a feline and the captain?

Let's see.

THINGS TO NOTE:

This story takes place a year after the events of "Treasure Planet".

It was also inspired by both a 1989 one-shot X-Men cartoon episode called "Pryde Of The X-Men" and the much darker, edgier, bloodier, more explicit and more serious 2004 movie "The Punisher", although both in loose senses.

There is a moral to this story, but I'll reveal that after you've read it, especially since you might get an idea of what it is, but confirmation will most likely be needed nonetheless.

Outside of my two OCs, I own none of the characters.

I mean, all the others do belong to "Treasure Planet", after all, and the two things that inspired this loosely that I mentioned above don't belong to me, either, since they were made by their respective creators instead of me.

Furthermore, there will be a portion of one sort or the other from some songs in certain scenes, and I don't own any of them, as they all belong to their respective artists(who, for anyone who hasn't heard them, I will let them know who said artists are after the end of this story).

Cat And Mouse

There had been a report of a highly explosive and just as dangerous bomb being located somewhere far away, although still on planet Monstressor.

It was such a threat that it had to be retrieved and locked away in the most profound sense of those two words.

Specifically, it had been agreed by Captain Amelia, who would manage the crew who was taking the voyage to find it, that this bomb would be locked away in a special metal cage located deep in the basement of the even deeper underground laboratory that the scientists who worked there let her and the crew know they would be more than happy to make sure of it that it was locked away like that to never be found or taken out.

Along with the usual ones under her command, Jim Hawkins and his mother, Sarah, were going to join them, given their relationship with the captain and how significant a matter this was, and although Doppler would have joined, their babies needed to be looked after and cared for, and he let his wife know that she could count on him to make sure they'd be, to use her own words, "right as rain".

As Jim was getting ready for the crew, he was lucky enough to happen across a mouse going by where he happened to be at the time, and said mouse was, apparently, an adventurer, as evidenced by the fact that he was equipped with what was clearly a miniature sword and a tiny flintlock pistol, and Jim found out that he talked when he said, making it clear that he had a cockney accent in so doing: "Whoa!"

"Hi there." Jim said.

The mouse, who was dark gray in fur color and also wore a gold circlet with a jade feather around his head, the latter being slightly smaller than his flintlock pistol. "Hello, human. Seeing you startled me. But that should hardly be a surprise. After all, you guys are much bigger than us mice, but what brings you here?"

"I'm getting ready for a very important voyage." replied Jim to the mouse. "It's about finding quite the powerful and threatening bomb so that it can be locked away for keeps so that it's no longer a threat to anyone. My name is Jim Hawkins."

"I see. Well, nice to meet you, Jim. My name is Ian Leland, but just call me Ian for short. Everyone does. By the way, I should tell you…you may get the idea that I'm an adventurer and crusader from what I'm wearing and wielding here." Jim was told.

Jim nodded after that, and Ian said to him: "And you're right."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that. Hey, I have an idea. How about you join us on the voyage I mentioned? One such as yourself, from what I heard and what that all must mean, could really lend a helping hand that'll increase the chances of success and eluding danger in the process of said successfulness."

"You know, that sounds fabulous!" Ian said excitedly as he jumped up in anticipation and said: "So, you know the way to where we need to go in order for me to join, right?"

"I sure do." Jim said with a smile. "By the way, on the way there, there are some things I need to fill you in on so you'll be ready for what you'll see, hear and need to do."

Ian nodded and the two got moving, telling him everything he knew about the crew, be it himself, his mother, Sarah or anyone else who was part of it, including Captain Amelia, with one exception that he didn't realize he forgot to add and wouldn't until it was too late.

"Anyway, I told you about her last because of how it would take the longest to explain how you follow her rules and how you refer to her, the latter of which is 'Captain' or 'ma'am', but now I have explained it and you know everything you must." said Jim. "Ah, here's the ship! I'll introduce you to everyone once we're on it!"

"Gotcha." Ian replied, and as soon as they were on the ship, Jim said: "Guys?" to the crew, who immediately looked at him and Ian(that is, all of the crew except Amelia, who was in her stateroom preparing some vital things at the moment).

He then informed them: "We've got a new member here. He's accompanying us on the crew. This mouse is an adventurer and crusader named Ian Leland, though you are to address him as Ian like everybody else. He let me know just before I led him here and made sure that he learned all of that which he needed to. He'll be more than happy to lend a helping hand, or should I say paw, and I think he would like you guys to introduce yourselves to him?"

So they all did, starting with Sarah, who said: "Jim here might have told you about me before the others. Either way, I'm his mother. My name is Sarah."

After everyone who'd just been introduced to Ian had finished, they heard the door of the captain's stateroom open, and Jim said: "Ah, that's Captain Amelia! Time for the last introduction here. Oh, and don't forget…it's either Captain or ma'am you refer to her as, just like was the case with me."

"I hear you." Ian replied, but just after Amelia came out and saw her crew looking a different way than they usually did, which puzzled her at first, Ian's eyes shot wide open and he exclaimed: " **SHE'S A CAT?!** "

Everyone looked at Ian, Amelia spinning around to do so, and Jim said: "Oh, dear. This is all my fault…I should have told you that part, Ian. Why did I forget, anyway? I'm so sorry…Captain! This is Ian Leland, although just refer to him as Ian, since that's what everyone refers to him as. I came across him when he happened to be running by where I was, told him about our voyage after we met upon him being startled to see a human present, offered him a part in it and he accepted it at once! I told him everything, or, as it turns out, almost everything he needed to know, but now I realize that I failed to inform him that you were a feline! You were in your stateroom when I introduced him to everyone else and I was ready to introduce him to you just as we heard you coming out! I know that you and he are off to a piss-poor start here, but neither of you is to blame. I am. My apologies. Anyway, Ian, Captain Amelia Smollett Doppler, though don't address her any other way than one of the two we agreed you would."

"Right, right, though I can think of more than a few different things I'd like to call you, CAPTAIN." Ian told her, but then Amelia told Jim: "You know, Jim, you could have contacted me after, ahem, IAN here accepted your offer, and let me know that he was a mouse along with why he could be useful before you brought him here. It's a very simple way to avoid what he and I will now obviously have to deal with."

"Well, I can see why you'd think that, MA'AM," Ian stated, "but the fact is that dealing with what we both have to now was going to happen even if he did call you. After all, your heart's obviously in the right place with that belief of a, to use your own words, 'very simple way' to avoid this, but reality check here…A CAT IS A CAT!"

Everyone's eyes flew wide open, and after a short silence, Amelia then said to him: "You do realize, mouse, that you are being prejudiced, correct?"

"Me, a mouse, saying the things I just did to you, a cat? Prejudiced my ass. It's realism, thank you very much. I suppose that, by all indications here, everyone suddenly shocked at the fact that I'm telling you these things and all, you actually, ironically, might not have eaten mice before, but seriously…once a predator, always a predator. Still, you're all obviously taking her side here, so she must be one adept and popular captain. And one who you believed wouldn't be dangerous to me, which signifies she can keep her killer instincts, emphasis on the KILLER part, under control. So maybe if I just avoid you, MA'AM, things might have the desired effect here after all."

"Fine. Besides, it's just as well." Amelia informed him.

"Really?" asked Ian. "Why's that?"

"Because after all of this, the very sight of you is offensive to me." she growled.

"The feeling's mutual!" Ian retorted as he took off until he was certain that he would not be able to see so much as a speck of Amelia.

"I'm sorry, Captain. I didn't mean for any of this to happen. Punch me if you want." Jim sighed, but Amelia said: "No, Jim, I will not punch you. I know you were well-intentioned when you did this. Perhaps the sudden excitement of having another ally and thus heightened chances that this mission will be accomplished caused you to forget to tell him about my felid status. But to the blazes with that. I am still angry at you for not considering to call, and we need to go on with this, anyway. Furthermore, despite how I do not want to see anything resembling a speck of, sigh, IAN, during this trip, you are to let him know that he is to follow my orders and do his part in this just as much as everyone else is the instant you see him again. Are we clear?"

"Of course we are, captain." Jim nodded, and he took off in order to not push his luck, since Amelia was still plenty mad at him, and understandably so.

After a few hours, and in fact just as he was getting to bed, Jim heard Ian's voice say: "Jim? Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me, Ian." Jim replied, and then told Ian: "By the way, there's something I need to inform you."

"Yeah? What's that?" Ian asked, and after Jim told him what Amelia ordered him to do when next he saw the mouse, Ian became livid.

"The nerve of her! This might be an important voyage for a crucial cause, but the only way in which I'll 'do my part' is to do things that will get the job done the right way just as much as it will by the others following her orders, sure enough, but not by doing what she says. I'll be doing it my own way, doing my own thing, shit like that."

"Even though she could see that as, and, for that matter, consider it mutiny?" asked Jim.

"Let her view it that way if she wants." Ian replied. "Yeah, she might try to attack me, but with or without the fact that, admittedly, I'd wager she's got a lot of physical and metal talents going for her, and also with or without how she's got the obvious size advantage over me, she cannot hope to even keep up with me or cope with what I can do in a fight. Granted, there are few who can do either of those things, but it'll feel so damn good that she's not one of them if she does go after me."

"If you say so. Just know that you're taking an awful lot of risk here, especially after getting off to such a piss-poor start with the captain." Jim told Ian just as he was about to fall asleep. "By the way, you can sleep with me if you want, but just keep in mind that I am your friend, but I am the captain's friend, as well."

"So what? You don't sleep in the same stateroom as her, and I sure as hell never will, so what difference does it make?" Ian asked. "She'll never know, and what she doesn't know won't hurt her, though I'm tempted to make it so that my sword and/or pistol do if she drops her guard."

"Would you please stop talking like that? She didn't even get a predatory look in her eyes when she saw you." Jim said.

"All right, all right, fine. But for you, not for her." Ian told Jim, who nodded as he and his new rodent buddy both nodded off.

The next morning, everyone had woken up, and just as the captain was handing out breakfast before enjoying her own, the last one she had made, since she wanted to spare herself the irritation of making it until after she'd done all the others to have it so that she could just get it over with and be done with it in the best way, was Ian's.

She called: "Jim? Come over here." and when he did, she handed him Ian's part of the breakfast she'd made and said: "Bring this to Ian and tell him that I only made it as delightful as everyone else's to be fair, and that if it were possible, which thankfully it isn't, given that I'm so tough and hardnosed, I'd be hurt by that lineup of discriminatory comments he made yesterday."

"Got it." Jim nodded. "Although, has your anger towards me abated any?"

"Mostly, yes, though it will most likely be a few hours or so later today before it's entirely gone."

"I hear you." Jim said, and he ran to his room, where he expected Ian would be waiting for breakfast in, and so he kept both Ian's and his own firmly in one hand apiece so that neither would fall.

Once he got in there, he said: "Good morning, Ian!"

"Good morning, Jim." Ian said. "Ah, you've got our breakfasts, I see!"

"Yes, although it's worth pointing out that the captain said I needed to tell you that she only made yours as marvelous as everybody else's to be fair, and, were it possible for her to be hurt by anything, though it isn't, given her hardheadedness and toughness, she would be hurt by how much discrimination you showed her yesterday."

"Ah, did she now?" asked Ian as he and Jim began to eat. "Well, I'm glad that you said what you just did to me, Jim! After all, this would well signify to many that she doesn't have feelings, though I believed that previously. Guess it's now been confirmed."

Jim looked at Ian as though his intestines were sliding out of his nose, and after a brief second of that, he said lividly: "You're a racist, you know that? I'll have you know for a fact that just a year ago, the captain lost a dear friend to her named Mr. Arrow. You wouldn't believe how close they were. And how useful, brave and cool he was. When he died, though none of us knew how at the time, since I secured all lifelines like I was supposed to, though I'd later find out that a nasty abomination named Scroop had cut Mr. Arrow's lifeline, she gave a quick speech in his honor, but I could tell that she was giving him as fast an ode as she could because she didn't want anyone to see how sad she was for more than a minute or so. She also was high up on one of this ship's masts a little while later, and given her personality, there's a very good chance that she was crying and didn't want anyone to see her."

"Wow. You're serious?" Ian asked as his eyes widened.

"As a heart attack. Which reminds me…what I've just said makes rather clear that she has a heart, while the way you're acting would make more than a few people think that you do, as well, but it's black instead of dark gray like your fur is." Jim answered.

"How about that?" Ian said, amazed. "Well, in that case, I suppose I'll at least TRY to be a LITTLE less of a rotter towards her, though almost exclusively in order to act in a way that proves I'm not blackhearted."

"Well, I'm glad you can at least do that." Jim said. "By the way, if it makes you feel any better, you're not alone in terms of the reception of her displeasure. The captain was very angry at me for not calling yesterday, and although the bulk of said anger is gone, a small amount still remains."

"To be honest, I can't see what difference it makes, if any, but I can see what you're going for." Ian said to Jim as the two finished their breakfast.

A short time later, Amelia made the announcement: "Attention, crew! We are currently entering the part of this planet where the bomb is located! Everything that can be seen here is a sign of that! So get the ship as prepared as possible for how we can get to where we need to if this mission is to have a maximum chance of success!"

So everyone got to work, but, while everyone else did what Amelia assigned them, Ian, as he said he'd do, did things in his own way and indeed his own thing, and, while it worked in just the way everyone else's part was intended to work, it was much different than what Amelia would expect to be done in what kind of order she gave and what that meant who did what, and deliberately so.

Amelia, just as she finished doing her part in it all, detected something odd about how a part of this was done.

"Yes, it was just as successful and effective…" she thought to herself, "…but that wasn't how I was intent on making sure it was…"

She realized immediately what this had to mean, and who it had to do with.

So when everyone was finished and Jim saw Ian come down along with everyone else who had just completed their parts seeing that, Ian looked this way and that to make sure that Amelia couldn't see him, and then he told Jim: "Well, we did it. We're good and ready for what is to come!"

"True, but I've a feeling that you doing it your own way isn't going to go over too well with the captain." Jim pointed out.

"Oh, please." laughed Ian. "Like it matters, and as if I give a fucking shit. Besides, I don't think she even noticed."

"Oh, I noticed." everybody heard Amelia say as the felid came forward, as if on cue, her face white rage as she looked down at Ian, enraged beyond words. "Just when I thought I couldn't possibly hate you any more, you have the temerity to pull such a stunt as this."

"It had the effect that your orders made clear needed to be the result, didn't it?" snorted Ian.

"Technically, yes, but I am captain of this crew, and when I give an order, I expect it to be obeyed. Even by the rebellious, self-impressed, prejudice-prone likes of you, Ian!" she snarled while pointing her right index finger down at him.

"I think it's safe to say that you just got on her permanent bad side, Ian." Sarah said to the mouse.

"You say that like it didn't happen after we first met." Ian told Sarah, and then Amelia barked: "You are not exempt from my authority and the fact I'm in charge any more than anyone else is, and you cannot act otherwise! And this would be so even if you weren't a vile little racist who made me more than justified in despising him!"

"Damn, I sure am in deep shit here, aren't I?" Ian laughed. "Look, MA'AM, the fact is that you might be considered to have every right to berate me after what I did and how I speak to and/or act towards you, but let's face it. Your empty words of criticism have no effect on me, captain, any more than do your pitiful attempts to make me obey your commands."

"That does it, vermin." Amelia hissed. "You are now confined to your room. I believe it is the same room that Jim sleeps in, so you, Jim Hawkins, need to make sure he does not get out of it when you are doing so yourself. And Ian?"

"Yeah?" Ian asked, with a mocking smile on his face.

Amelia then put in: "Consider me your worst nightmare if I ever see you again!"

She then put her right arm next to her side and looked to the others, saying: "But as for the rest of you, good job well done. Carry on, everyone."

Just then, she glared daggers at Ian to emphasize how serious she was about what she had said, and Ian nodded with a grin that showed that he knew she wasn't bluffing and was indeed most serious, but it didn't scare him in the slightest.

In the background, at this very moment, part of a song was playing, though neither of them knew or heard it, nor did anyone else present.

It consisted of these lyrics.

' _Cause, baby, now we've got bad blood!  
You know it used to be mad love!  
So take a look what you've done!  
'Cause, baby, now we've got bad blood, hey!  
Now we've got problems!  
And I don't think we can solve 'em!  
You made a really deep cut!  
And, baby, now we've got bad blood, hey!_

Later on, at night, Jim said: "I've gotta say, Ian, you're lucky that the captain just confined you to our room. I really don't like having to say this to someone who's my friend, but you really did deserve worse."

"Hey, if I'm not going to be prejudice towards the bitch, I've gotta find a fucking substitute, you know? And since even I know better than to personally attack her about Mr. Arrow, I decided I'd just replace my discrimination with obnoxiousness, defiance and insolence. As well as disobedience. After all, it's nothing that she hasn't seen before. It happens with every commander of every sort, captain or otherwise." Ian said, while Jim's jaw dropped.

"You did not just call her a bitch." he gasped.

"Oh, yes, I did." Ian said. "But as if she's ever going to know. If she sees me again, and, yes, even hears or smells me again, she will be my worst nightmare. No doubt about that. Make me walk the plank, squeeze me in a vise-like grip, hold me down with the heel of her boot firmly and put all of her weight into it, whatever. But as long as I avoid her and everyone makes sure to avoid telling her about anything bad I say about her, you or otherwise, I don't see how this voyage will be ruined and prove unsuccessful, a failure, what have you. She might actually need your company, since she isn't angry at you anymore and most likely longs for some companionship after the way I was such an asshole to her today, though I had my damn good reasons, thank you very much."

"I cannot deal with you right now." Jim said to Ian. "So I guess that your suggestion is actually better than you think it is. Don't move from that spot until it's morning following how we've both fallen asleep. You got that?"

"Of course I do, Jim." Ian nodded, and so Jim, keeping a firm eye on Ian at all times, got out of his bedroom and closed the door tightly, though Ian knew something that Jim didn't, and had his fingers crossed behind his back because of it.

Although Jim wasn't considering why Ian thought Amelia might be in need of company despite how she was usually sleeping like a log at this time of night, much like everyone else was and he and Ian would be if the mouse wasn't continuing to be such a jerk to Amelia even though she didn't deserve it, and thus making him angry, of course, he did, ironically, see her standing out to the side of the ship.

"Captain?" asked Jim, and Amelia said, a little surprised: "Jim? Shouldn't you be asleep? I know that I'm not, even though I'm usually the first one to pass out when it's bedtime for this whole crew, but I'm too furious and offended to even begin to shut my eyes right now, so I thought I'd take a nice, long view of the sky, since it's such a beautiful night and this is all calming me down, well, at least to the extent I can be calmed down, anyway."

"I know what you mean. And I know why, too. I'm here to give you some companionship, given our relationship and how you're not pissed off at me anymore. Ironically, the very one who was so nasty and snide towards you just for being a cat and causing you to have your current unpleasant feelings suggested I do this." Jim told her, then braced himself for a scary reaction, cursing himself in his mind for saying that last part.

"Ian told you this might be a good idea even though he knows how much I hate his guts and that he's in for it if any of my senses even detect a small trace of him, along with how he's the reason I'm like this right now in the first place?" Amelia asked, half-surprised, half-put off.

"Or actually because!" they both hear Ian's voice say.

Both were surprised and confused, but then Jim saw Ian under Amelia's right shoulder pad and said: "IAN?! How the hell are you out here? I locked you in that room and shut the door tightly!"

"Or at least you would have if it weren't for the fact that, just as you were coming in after me and feeling too frustrated to pay attention, I went and got a hold of the key, having, since I wasn't irritated like you were, noticed our cat commander here looking out to the night sky, and, since one would think a captain would be the first to fall asleep at night but this time, ours was standing there on the side of the boat, my knowing why she must have been doing it prompted me to find my way around so that I could piss her off more the instant that the opportunity presented itself." Ian gloated.

Jim and Amelia looked at him, a mixture of astonishment and rage on their faces, and Ian said to the latter: "Yes, oh, worst nightmare of mine, your confinement orders didn't mean shit to me! Not with how I knew I would find a way to dance around the flames, given I was dealing with the devil! And you know, I gotta say…"

He jumped off of her shoulder before she or Jim could even blink, and landed on the part of her coat that was above her cleavage, of all places, before adding: "…given how you look so damn good, which even I can't deny and indeed have to admit despite how you're a cat, I'd wager that you're so popular and well known due in no small part to how you possess said appearance. Shit, even straight girls would most likely want you. That said, does your crew, by any chance, find you to be a perfect nighttime fuck who performs said reward to one and all for their hard work and utter loyalty?"

It was right then and there that Amelia managed to grab him via snatching him off of her chest with her left hand and squeeze him hard, much to the mouse's surprise, since he was nigh-impossible for anyone to touch with so much as their fingertip, and thus he wasn't used to being in any way touched, let alone caught and trapped in the grip of the one who had the most to hate him for and was indeed now his worst nightmare.

"Dammit! I can't move! Jim, make her let go of me now!" Ian screeched.

"No, Ian. You deserve this. I'm just going to stand by and get me some nighttime entertainment." Jim smiled.

Amelia's eyes, which were burning with so much fury that you could virtually see green hellfire in them, were accompanied with their owner saying with just as heated anger: "I will have you know for a fact, you insignificant, odious waste of life, that I not only have never done any such thing and never will, but I am also a happily married mother of four."

"Whoa! Is that a fact?" Ian said, doing and saying everything he could to ignore how scared he now was. "So who's the daddy? And are these four kittens just like you or did they decide to be as little like you as possible or what? GGGGHHHHHHHKKKKKKKKK!"

Amelia's grip tightened and she snarled at him: "I have three kittens and a puppy. My husband is Delbert Doppler, and he is a canid, which is why the latter is one, and my only son, along with the aforementioned three kittens being my daughters. So don't go suggesting that I just allow anyone and everyone who likes the way that I look be rewarded with lay after lay with me each and every night. Your disrespect towards me, which I did not think could increase any further, has just skyrocketed along with how much I loathe you. That you turned a perfectly peaceful, calming, soothing, quiet, beautiful night like this into what many would consider the night from hell pours fuel on the fire, and there's only one thing that's stopping me from squeezing you tighter in order to crush the life out of you."

"YYYYYEEEAAAHHH?" shuddered a now even more terrified Ian, barely able to breathe through Amelia's crushing grasp. "WHHAAATTT'S THAAAAAAT?"

"It's the fact that I would prove that you were right to judge me before you even knew me and show considerable discrimination towards me just for being a feline. And even then, I am unable to deny that it's so, so tempting to kill you and eat you, with the rules you've broken and the instances in which you insulted me." Amelia spat. "I warned you that I would be your worst nightmare if I ever saw, smelled and/or heard even a tiny bit of you again. I meant it."

Suddenly, Amelia looked more surprised than confused, feeling something a bit pointy on her lower palm, and hissed: "You were talking about me being a sexual object before, weren't you? That had best not be an erection I feel there. Or I suppose you think you'll try and make things worse concerning how things are between you and me, if possible? Perhaps you're thinking you might like to rape me! Is that it?"

"RAPE YOU?! **YIKES!** " Ian exclaimed, taken aback by what she was accusing him of. "Cat or no cat, I just DO NOT go that far! Never mind the fact that my cock is way too small for your cunt, anyway…there are some lines one just does NOT cross, no matter what! And I sure as hell don't cross such lines, the one you're accusing me of considering said crossing of or otherwise! Show, I admit, possibly undeserved and unfair meanness and uncooperative rebelliousness towards you, yes, but I wouldn't rape you if it were a choice between that or being stomped on by Jim here!"

Just after he turned to look at Jim for emphasis, he looked at her again and said: "Although, your mentioning that your husband's a dog just made me realize…first, a cat who's not of the intent of eating a mouse while said mouse is prejudiced towards her. And a dog who is married to said cat, with three kittens and a puppy for children. Maybe how topsy-turvy this world is becoming might make it so that I can't focus on being so unfriendly towards you anymore, although the damage is done, which means you can't possibly forgive me and there's no way in hell I can even begin to make it up to you at all, but said switch of focus is something I'll be giving some serious thought to, if only for the sheer shock I'm feeling here."

"You're absolutely right about the part of how I can't forgive you and there's nothing can do to make up for the way you've treated me," Amelia informed Ian, "but you're lying about that switch of focus thing and we both know it. And if what I'm feeling is not your filthy equipment, then what is it?"

"Simple!" Ian said as he capitalized on how her confusion got her distracted and he got her to say: "OW!" as he pushed forward his sword, which was what she had been feeling on that lower part of her palm, so that, despite how it didn't cut her due to the fact she was wearing her gloves on both that hand and the other, it enabled him to get free of her suddenly loosened grip and jump up onto her arm while putting his sword into the air.

"It was the tip of my sword! The blade thereof, that is." he explained. "By the way, you gave me a warning, but just a quick little warning of my own to you."

Running up to Amelia's face after somersaulting onto the startled feline's right shoulder, he then showed her his sword and informed her: "You simply gripped me tonight after how my provoking you on top of provoking you caused you to do so, and I can think, I won't ignore it, of more than a few who would side with you and against me. But keep well in mind…gripping me only caused me to do a small poke onto your palm. If you try to eat me, it'll be a full force stab in your eye. Got it?"

"And I've got you." Amelia replied as she took a hold of Ian with her right hand, alarming him again, since this was the second time he'd been grabbed tonight, and by the same individual, no less, following her bringing her left forearm up to make it so that she could catch him off guard and have him in her grasp again.

She subsequently tossed him all the way over to the other side of the boat with a backhand swing of her arm helping her, and after he hit his head and passed out, she told Jim: "Make sure that's where he sleeps tonight whether he wakes up before everyone else does or not."

"Yes, ma'am." Jim nodded, and he walked on over to put Ian's sword's handle around his feet so that he wouldn't be able to stand back up even if he woke up, right before the former went back to his cabin to finally sleep and said: "Sorry about this, captain. I'm sorry for everything. I should have known he'd try a stunt like this."

"It's quite all right. You were doing just what I told you to outside of how he managed to catch you off guard, so you haven't gotten yourself on my bad side once more. Still, I would like to be left alone after this, and I don't think I need to tell you why." Amelia replied.

"Of course not, captain." Jim nodded before going back to his bedroom, getting into bed and falling asleep.

The next morning, Jim woke up along with the rest of the crew to see that Amelia was making special coffee cakes for breakfast and, fittingly enough, coffee to go with it, something that he was delighted about.

However, just as everyone was getting theirs, Amelia said: "Jim?"

"Yes, captain?" Jim asked, and Amelia told him: "I need you to take these two specific coffee cakes and the coffees to drink with them for which of them goes to you and that…UUUUGGGHHH…EEERRRGGHHHH…SIGH…sword-wielding stowaway."

"Understood." Jim said, and he took both cakes and both coffees to where he remembered Amelia throwing Ian. "Ian? Are you awake?" he asked.

The mouse looked up to him and said: "And finally free of this sword's handle around my feet, yes. How the hell did that happen, anyway?"

"Beats me." Jim lied, thinking to himself: "I wonder why Amelia was so specific about what he and I got? I guess I'm about to find out."

While Jim drank his coffee and began eating his coffee cake, Ian did much the same on both counts and said: "Wow! Even after the deplorable way that I've been treating her, the captain didn't decide to just starve me or give me something unappetizing for breakfast?"

"She's just that committed to being a true, proper captain and therefore a just commander, regardless of how high or low her opinion on someone or other is." Jim told Ian, who said to him: "Well, how about that…OOOOOWWWWW!"

"Ian? What's wrong?" Jim asked. "That next sip of coffee was scalding hot! It's like I just drank boiling oil…huh?" Ian told him, but then got confused.

His coffee went down onto his cake, and then, after it happened, it caused words to be formed into what of the coffee cake he hadn't eaten, and he and Jim both watched in amazement as the cake now had empty spots in it which consisted of the following words.

 **GO TO HELL**

Aghast at this, Jim laughed: "Ha, ha! So that's why Amelia wanted me to bring over those specific two parts of the breakfast she made! Serves you right for being so mean and unfair to her!"

"Hey, I won't stand for that fucking shit, Jim!" spat Ian. "Like you couldn't stand at all when I put your sword's handle around your feet to make sure that you'd sleep while stuck where the captain tossed your ass!" Jim laughed.

"Oh, my God! You lied to me! You did this, and under her orders, no less!" Ian exclaimed. "How dare you! But I'll deal with you in a minute."

Just while Amelia was enjoying her own coffee cake and coffee, and took great delight in the fact that she was now hearing what was clearly Ian finding out the "special treat" she made for him, she heard a sound which suggested something had landed in her cake, or in this case, someone, because she looked down, much to her alarm, to see a steamed Ian looking up at her while the lower half of his body was surrounded by her coffee cake, since he landed in the center of it when he ran over and flipped so that it would happen like that, like he meant to.

"Go to hell, huh?" he snapped at Amelia. "Would that hell, by any chance, be your stomach?"

"No, you aren't that lucky. You deserve the much worse original hell, though, thanks to you, I cannot finish my breakfast. Not when there's been garbage put into it. Let's see you find your way out of the about to be literally deep trouble you've gotten yourself into." Amelia replied a second before tossing her plate over and making it so that it landed so that the bottom was facing upwards.

Ian found himself trapped under what Amelia had not eaten of her coffee cake and struggled to get out while screaming: "BITH ISTHNT OBBER, BIPCH! DOO WILL BAY POR DITH!"

"You really are full of hot air, rodent." Amelia said while walking away and finishing her coffee. "What I did to you last night is evidence of that."

Part of a song was playing in the background just then, though neither she nor Ian nor any other individual around heard it.

 _She fucking hates me!_

 _Trust she fucking hates me!_

 _La, la, la, love!_

 _I tried too hard and she tore my feelings like I had none!_

 _And ripped them away!_

A little bit afterwards, at which point everyone had been laughing and still was after Ian finally struggled his way out of the coffee cake Amelia had trapped him in, he asked: "What the bloody hell? I could have suffocated under that plate of coffee cake, or at least been crushed, and you all think it's funny?!"

Sarah then asked: "Maybe the captain was trying to make a point? Maybe you would like to consider that she was trying to teach you a lesson?"

"Which you brought on yourself." Jim told Ian, then adding: "And you know, the captain's been pretty damn lenient with you, the way that she could have done much worse to punish you, Ian, up to and including eating you, which would have been one hell of an ironic punishment, given what started your racism towards her."

"The magnitude of what punishments she's given me is of no importance." spat Ian. "She's a cat, and unless there's something I don't know, that isn't about to change!"

Just then, Amelia spun around and told Ian: "One more prejudiced remark towards me, mouse, and I will see you imprisoned in a way that sees you immobilized completely."

Sarah then told him: "I think you'd best heed her words, Ian."

"Right, right, right." Ian sighed. "But be clear on this, captain…our relationship is never going to improve. Granted, you could just as easily have said this to me, and are undoubtedly like-minded about it, but I guess I beat you to the punch in making sure that, no matter what else happens, we both know that are always going to be enemies, just like is the case with all other cats like you and all other mice like me."

"Indeed on all counts, though in, as you put it, 'beating me to the punch', you have saved me the trouble of putting across that part to you, which I would thank you for, but let's face it…after all the discrimination and prejudice you've shown me, it should hardly surprise you that I am very tempted to see you get hanged or walk the plank when we're near a pit full of tall, sharp rocks or even, ironically justifiably by this point, eat you piece by piece after making said pieces with my claws, with you feeling every bit of it while I intentionally keep you alive for the whole ordeal. Do answer me this, however…you would be expressing this kind of malicious, threatening hostility towards me if our roles were reversed and I were the racist mouse and you the continually discriminated cat, would you not?" Amelia responded.

"Of course I would." Ian admitted. "Although you, and everyone else here, for that matter, really should stop calling me racist and prejudiced and discriminatory and all of that other shit. I'm just acting accordingly to how a mouse who is forced to share a ship with a cat would. Can't any of you see that? Yeah, she hasn't come after me…YET…but how does that assure any of us, me or otherwise, that it will never happen? I can't read minds or predict the future, you know! Besides, we shouldn't talk to each other any longer from this point forward, it's true, but tell me, captain, doesn't predatory feline shit like you might or might not lose control of run in the family? Your family prior to you and the dog making one of your own, that is."

"Family?" asked Amelia. "You want to know something about my previous family, you little thorn in my side? I never knew any of them past the age of seven! Most hate pirates, but I am above possibly everyone else who loathes pirates for one very simple reason…when I was at the aforementioned age of seven, both of my parents, all three of my brothers and both of my sisters were abducted by a very large and ruthless band of them, as was I! Though their captain, who was a woman, as evidenced by her voice, never showed herself to me or any of my family, and simply was heard by us giving orders to her crew, that crew was only too happy to follow her orders. First, I was tied up to a mast on their ship and gagged, as well. Then, taking sadistic pleasure in making sure I saw it all, the captain of this band of pirates made sure of it that, as my parents were slashed up by some of her crew members, my five siblings had that as the last thing ever they saw before they were shot in the head, one by one, by other members of that fiendish pirate crew! I was the sole survivor, and even then, I was helpless to do anything about what I was forced to see, just like my whole family was helpless to try and fight back, as they'd been chained down for what was to be done to them! And I had no uncles or aunts, as both of my parents were an only child in their respective families! So I didn't have any cousins, either! Furthermore, all four of my grandparents died before I was born, which means that I am the only remaining member of my family tree, or at least I was before I married Delbert and gave birth to my daughters Jib, Tillie and Matey, as well as my son Sunny! And let's not forget that the only reason I'm still alive after what happened when we were captured by those pirates was because Mr. Arrow, my now long lost closest of friends, happened to have been passing by with his own crew on a ship of his own when the second-in-command of the pirate crew, under their captain's further orders, got me off of that mast while making sure I was, ironically, tied up and gagged even tighter and then tried to toss me to my death into space, which he thankfully averted by making sure I was caught and the pirates were driven off despite how he meant to see them captured and put to a well-deserved death! Maybe you would like to consider everything you've just heard from me before considering the whole 'runs in the family' or 'like mother, like daughter' matters, or anything similar, for that matter!"

Everyone was stilled by hearing this from Amelia, who had never revealed it until now, but then, after a long silence, Ian said: "Wow. That…that is really sad…and so awful…even knowing they were all cats…although Jim told me about the death of Mr. Arrow thing two nights ago in order to try and convince me to stop treating you like dirt, although, as evidenced by what happened after that, it didn't work at all. But let me just get one thing straight, though…you were a seven-year old girl back then."

Amelia nodded, and then Ian said: "And this second-in-command happily, after your whole family was slain, obeyed the captain's orders to tie up and gag you so that you were impotent while said sub-commander tossed you to your death via throwing you into space, or at least that's what she and her second-in-command meant to happen."

Amelia nodded once more, and Ian went: "Okay, really. Cat or not, this is just one of those things you do not do. A line you do not cross, to be sure. A pirate captain…who was going to have her second-in-command toss A SEVEN-YEAR OLD GIRL into space while she was conscious and tied up and gagged so tightly that she was also unable to do anything to try and escape and/or fight back…all after she saw her entire family slaughtered…I…I just can't hate you anymore…not after hearing this…and especially considering the fact that…while I don't live with them anymore…both of my parents are still alive…as are my brother and sister…I…it just isn't…I can't find the words…this Mr. Arrow must have been a big help in that way but also in training you to become a captain when you decided you wanted to be one…logic suggests that…I'm saying this to try and take my mind off of…no…no…just no…"

But this didn't last long, as Ian then said: "What the hell? What the fuck am I saying? A crew of pirates which killed cats? I should join them, I'm so happy! Maybe then you and all other feline menaces in this world will finally understand that you're not welcome on any planet in any part of this universe! Why the hell did Mr. Arrow have to fucking save you, anyway?"

"That tears it, Ian. Go into the lowest part of the hold of this ship. Now. Before I realize how stupid and indeed what a fool I've been to repeatedly spare your life instead of eating you like you so richly deserve." Amelia spat. "And don't you dare come out of there until this voyage is over."

She went over and saw all of a sudden that they had just reached where the bomb was.

At once her face lit up and her mind was cleared of anything about Ian while she said: "We've found it! The bomb's here! Everyone follow me so that we can retrieve it as fast as possible!"

"Excellent!" Jim shouted and Sarah said: "Way to go, captain! You spotted it!" while all of the other crew members except for Ian(big surprise)cheered and followed her down to where it was after things were made so that they could get off, stopping the ship or otherwise.

She and her crew all made certain of it that the bomb was picked up without being activated and brought it onto the ship, with Amelia keeping it in her hands and blocking out the lovely thought of hurling it up into the air with one hand and doing the same thing to Ian with the other.

"I congratulate you all for how your cooperation and competence made sure of it that our efforts to get this before anyone else could so that it could be made certain it would no longer threaten or endanger anyone ended in success, and as soon as we get this ship moving once more, we are going to…" Amelia started, but she saw Ian standing in front of her, the latter at once saying: "Yeah, you all pulled it off, no thanks to me. Which is just fine. I wouldn't want thanks from anyone who would be friends with a cat, and certainly not from the cat herself!"

"DID I NOT TELL YOU TO GET YOUR TAIL INTO THAT HOLD NOW?!" Amelia asked with considerable rage. "WHEN I GIVE AN ORDER, I MEAN IT AND THE ONE WHO I GIVE IT TO NEEDS TO OBEY IT! HOW HARD CAN IT BE FOR EVEN ONE SUCH AS YOU TO BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THAT?!"

Ian nodded while telling her: "Yeah, you told me to do that, meant it and, as far as you, and, chances are, quite a few others are concerned, it was something I should have done. I'll be fair enough to acknowledge that. But do be so good as to remember, CAPTAIN, that I wasn't obeying you at all before, and that certainly isn't going to be any different now. Although, all things considered, you're welcome to try and kill and eat me now, if you want. Just remember that sword in the eye thing I told you last night."

"Give my Mom the bomb, captain." Jim said. "I'll deal with my EX-friend here."

Amelia nodded and gave Sarah the bomb so that, as she could tell Jim was clearly suggesting, she could go and let off some steam.

"Okay, Ian, first of all, you're not my friend anymore." Jim told him. "And second of all…"

All of a sudden, however, there was a giant crash into their ship that everyone heard, and they turned to see another ship…a pirate ship…in front of them, and its occupants somersaulted onto the ship they'd crashed into, landing all over it immediately, and the voice that was next heard as it said: "Nice job, everyone! Now get to it, and don't leave a single damn one of them standing!" was one that Amelia recognized immediately…it was the voice of the pirate captain who had run the crew that killed her family and almost killed her!

This was the pirate crew that took her family from her and nearly killed her, and in the process both made her hate pirates on a level no one thought possible and caused her life to be all but ruined despite how Mr. Arrow saved her from death(which it would have been if not for Mr. Arrow also lending her all of the other help he did as her replacement parent of sorts).

Indeed, they were evil even by pirate standards, to the point where even most pirates would hate and fear them, and this was so both before and after they did the dirty deed that, again, first almost killed Amelia and then almost ruined her life despite how it wasn't taken.

Amelia knew all of this only too well just as much as everything else she knew only too well, concerning this sort of shit or otherwise, so it was only too understandable that she wanted to make them pay for everything they'd done, mentioned directly or otherwise, and the fact that her near death experience at the hands of the captain's second-in-command made sure that she would irrevocably lose her innocence forever boosted her eagerness for revenge even further, and this was also only too understandable.

Though she and everyone else present, including Jim(who would deal with Ian later), Sarah(who put the bomb in the first spot where it would be concealed nicely that she could see) and Ian(who would be ready for the rest of Jim's making it clear that they weren't friends any more and all the other condemning his ex-friend would throw his way), got ready for battle and in fact were fighting in seconds, the funny thing was that her fight would have a bit of a build up prior to actually occurring, as the captain she had just heard the voice of once more and had the worst memories of her entire life, bar none, come back to her as a result of that, now made her presence known.

"Well, hello there, bitch." she said.

Amelia, upon seeing her, now knew that she was like a dark brown canid version of her, who wore a black pirates hat with(duh)a skull and crossbones, along with how her clothes were identical to Amelia's except in color, as her pants were dark silver and her boots an even darker black than Amelia's, plus her gloves were black instead of white like Amelia's along with how her shirt(what little of it could be seen under her coat, anyway)was dark gold, not to mention that her coat was, in the spots that were yellow on Amelia's, blood red and the rest of her coat was less black than her boots but more black then her hat.

Furthermore, her teeth were even longer and sharper than Amelia's, as were her claws, and her eyes were not a beautiful green like Amelia's were.

Oh, no, they were blood red, not just where the areas of green on Amelia's eyes were, but all over the rest of her eyes, as well(even more blood red than what parts of her coat weren't black, in fact!).

Her nose was as black as her boots and her ears, while drooping down instead of standing up like Amelia's did, since this pirate captain was a canid, not a felid, were still plenty pointed and scary looking.

She was also two inches taller than Amelia and about ten pounds heavier, though this was in a sleek, muscular kind of way for her weight and you could barely see the height difference.

Finally, she had a long cutlass in a scabbard on her left pant leg, and this was also the case with her right pant leg, in addition to how she had a gun kept in a special long pocket on the right side of her right boot…a rifle, to be exact.

Her voice, which clearly had a British accent, but was much deeper than Amelia's, was heard again when she said: "It's been quite a long while, hasn't it, Amelia? Almost as long as one of my fucking swords. You never saw me, though, and although I'm enraged that asshole Arrow saved your ass at the last fucking second, you at least now get to get introduced to me. My name is Maligna. I heard a lot about you recently. You and your being a captain and mother and everything. Despite this and all else there is to be known about you, I'm guessing that, deep down, you're sad because you miss your parents, brothers and sisters, and Arrow, on top of that, as well."

She subsequently took out one of her cutlass swords and tossed it to Amelia in a way that was clearly meant for her to catch it for an imminent swordfight, so Amelia used her fast, sharp reflexes to get a hold of it by the handle while Maligna drew that other cutlass of hers, and then a second later, when they were both in position and ready for each other while Amelia's crew took down as much of Maligna's crew as they could and indeed it was one hell of a heated battle and melee, Maligna said to Amelia: "And now, cat, I will fucking finish what the hell I fucking started with your pitiful family back when you were seven!"

"NEVER!" Amelia exploded. "This is where I pay you back for what you did, and everything that you did before and after that along with your wretched crew! I will now avenge my family!"

"We'll see about that." Maligna grinned wickedly as the two then got into a swordfight which had just as many instances of them blocking one another's blades as it of them dodging said blades and getting in one cut or another.

But after a while of this, their blades hit one another so hard that their swords went flying out of their hands, and, while both then decided they would shoot each other down, instead, they drew their guns so quickly that they were both able to shoot the other's gun out of her hands, so they knew it was time to get up close and personal.

"You've lasted a lot longer against me than I thought you would, little one." Maligna admitted. "But you can't possibly hope to bring me down hand to hand, so this is where the hell you die."

"Forgive me if I do not buy that load of claptrap for one second of all, you monstrous fiend!" Amelia spat as they then went over to each other and started trading punches, kicks, elbows, knees, open-handed hits, bites, strangling attacks and clawing attacks without a drop of indication it was going to stop in sight, though there were just as many times in which one or both of them blocked and/or dodged the other's blow or blows.

As they fought, there was yet another portion of yet another song playing in the background, and like the previous two, this third one could not be heard by anyone, them or otherwise.

 _All of my hate cannot be bound!_

 _I will not be drowned by your thoughtless scheming!_

 _Now you can try to tear me down!_

 _Beat me to the ground!_

 _I will see you screaming!_

After a time of all of this fighting, all of the pirates but Maligna's second-in-command and Maligna herself were dead, and the former, who had managed to barge his way through some of Amelia's crew, though he didn't have time to kill them, given what kind of a melee this was and how he wanted a means to try and take a different approach to destroying Amelia's crew and its captain, was able to find the bomb despite how no one else would have been able to.

"Well, would you just look at this!" he exclaimed, just after, ironically, Amelia gained the upper hand by means of three slashes and two punches, the first two slashes being accompanied by her saying: "You took everything from me except my life, and almost took that, as well! This is for my parents! This is for my siblings!"

Her two punches were followed by her saying: "This is for all the innocents, animals and/or heroes you've hurt and caused problems for, fatally or not, when committing your countless and endless atrocities!"

Finally, just as she was about to deliver the coup de grace following how her second punch had knocked Maligna down, she was saying: "And this is for you!" she would have done the deed if it weren't for how Amelia's second-in-command suddenly saw it and boomed: "Don't you dare, little girl!"

Amelia, knowing there was only one individual who this voice could belong to, turned to see Maligna's second-in-command and snarled: "You…"

"Yeah, me." he said. "The one who almost killed you back when you were seven and it would have happened if it weren't for your pebble pal Mr. Arrow. Well, he's not here to save you this time, and now, ironically, you will be joining him as I end your life the way that I should have ended it years ago!"

Maligna, who was just now getting up, having regained enough energy and strength for the time it took for what had just happened to, well, happen, slashed Amelia down the back from behind and then took a hold of her hair and pulled her around as so to cut her across the belly, and, although neither wounding was fatal, it certainly put Amelia out of action, at least for the most part, anyway, since she was struggling to stand back up again despite how she was bleeding and suffering, both a lot and badly.

"Why, how you've pleased me, my faithful sub-commander!" she smiled. "You both gave me the break I needed to replace myself with the one who put me in that position I was in just seconds ago and found a bomb! This must be why Amelia was taking her crew on a voyage! She was meaning to find that bomb and make sure it would be rendered impotent and no longer a threat one way or another! Well, she failed miserably at the last second, as you have now found that bomb despite how it was undoubtedly put in the place where it had the best chance of staying hidden, and it will be used for the best possible purpose it can be used…namely to see this ship and everyone on it utterly destroyed after you and I, sadly the only two damn survivors of this fight, get back onto ours!"

"NO!" she heard Jim shout, and he went up to tackle her and take the bomb out of her hands, right before he did the first thing that he could think of, which was to throw it up into the air with all his might, and although he was able to get it just above the second tallest of the ship's masts, the way that he had done this, to his surprise, set it off, since the way he grabbed and threw it caused him to press what button would activate it by mistake, even though he just wanted there to be time for Maligna and her second-in-command to be brought down one way or the other by him and as many of the, unhappily, tired and damaged despite being triumphant and alive members of Amelia's crew, as was an option.

But it exploded, albeit high in the air, and the blast caused one of the masts to be dislodged from its position, and, though Amelia just then recovered from her wounds enough to grab her gun, which she saw had been caused to slide over to where she now was during all that had happened before, get up and turn around to shoot Maligna's second-in-command through the skull, she suddenly fell over again as the pain, damage and bleeding pulled her down once more and caused her to drop her gun.

Everyone gasped along with her when they saw that the mast was falling after that, and while many were able to scatter and get out of the way enough so that it wouldn't fall on them, Amelia saw that Jim, Sarah and, yes, Ian, were standing where it would fall along with how she was pinned down onto her side by her wounds there.

Utilizing what little energy she had left thanks to a small regaining of it after seeing the three who were under the falling mast along with her, of course while seeing the falling mast itself, she pushed herself up as much as she could with all of her might and pushed Jim and Sarah both out of the way.

Now, she could have easily just rolled back along with them and let Ian be crushed by the mast, and surely this is what she would do, since he definitely and indeed without a doubt deserved it after the way he'd acted and treated her, plus all the problems he'd caused in so doing!

Not so.

Instead, she ignored how much it would hurt like hell to make it so that her last stamina was spent when she threw herself forward, shoved Ian out of the way and, despite tumbling back to where Jim and Sarah were after that, the manner in which it was required for her to move and act in order to save Ian caused her to tumble back fast and hit the side of the ship where her human friends were hard before either could act to try and help her, and I mean really, really hard(as in, she hit it ultra, make that SUPER, hard).

Just as the mast hit the floor, falling onto no one after all that had just happened, but still shook the ship quite a bit, Ian's head cleared and he realized what had to have happened, given who and what he saw before and how things had been occurring when the ship's mast got dislodged and also what he saw just as it was falling.

"Wait a second…" he said in his mind. "I'm still alive and in one piece…the only way that would be possible is if…wait…Amelia got me out of the way…? And if things are as they sounded like concerning that matter along with, most likely beforehand, the way things were going, the matter of Jim and Sarah…then that can only have been possible in one way…"

He turned to see what he came to believe was so, and sure enough, Amelia was hurt so bad, if she was even still alive, that it was impossible to tell whether she was or not, and in any case, bleeding certainly made itself clear.

All while tight up against the side of the ship which she hit.

As Ian saw and heard Sarah and Jim, who were currently holding Amelia's body while also right up against the side of the ship in question, which looked lifeless, saying: "Please, Amelia…" and "Don't be dead…" respectively, he gasped and thought to himself: "Dear God. Even after I was so horrible, so cruel, so prejudice, so disrespectful, so unfair, so disobedient and so rotten to her, she made sure I would be saved along with everyone else at the risk of losing her life when she could have just as easily rolled away and left me to my fate while everyone else survived. How could I have been so monstrous, blind and unfair? Shit, I was never even attacked by a cat, and neither were any of family or friends, for that matter. And she lost her entire family to pirates, at least her prior family tree, anyway, and, unlike me, was almost killed at the age of seven, and now the one who saved her and was her best friend is gone, as well. Ian, you asshole. You absolute fucking monster. You prejudiced ghoul. Her saving your life at the risk of her own was far better than you deserved. And her husband…her four children…how will they possibly be able to…? Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. If she's dead, I will never forgive myself. Ever."

 _Ian's imagination suddenly kicked in and he saw himself in a courtroom, on trial with what part of him was the "guilt" section of his emotions, which looked identical to him except for wearing, you guessed it, a judge's wig and a judge's robe, and there were many identical mice to him in the seats that were clearly meant for the jury, wearing what jurors wore during a trial, plus Amelia was in the witness seat to the left side of the judge…as a zombie version of herself._

 _That, and he was in the defendant's seat for obvious reasons, with Jim as his lawyer and Sarah as the court reporter._

 _"Everyone quiet, please, court is in session." said the judge. "Mr. Ian Leland, you are on trial for prejudice and indirect felicide. Now, this zombie cat here to the left of me, Captain Amelia Smollett Doppler, alleges that she's dead because of you, since she used what little life was left in her to save you and this resulted in her death and your survival…even though you'd been treating her like dirt throughout the entire voyage that she was captain of and you were part of, all because she was a feline woman, prior to what melee occurred and let to the mast falling down that she saved you from being crushed by after she'd done the same thing for your lawyers and the court reporter. That said, her having become a zombie version of herself is considerable evidence that you are guilty. However, we must act according to due process, so Mr. Hawkins, while your mother is recording everything here, we would like to know if there is anything that can be said in your client's defense?"_

 _"Hmmmm…" Jim said, wracking his brain. "Well, I wish I could say there was," he put in after a little while of thinking, "but given how he mistreated and was very rude and discriminatory to her just for being a cat, and knowing that how Captain Amelia was one of my closest friends in life despite how I want my friendship with Ian here to continue, there just isn't anything that can even begin to disprove my client's guilt. I wish I could defend him, but I can't. It's impossible. He was in that position where there was only one way he could be saved, and it was one which would result in Amelia being killed. He might not have done so directly or have been of the intent to commit said felicide, but he is the reason that she died nonetheless."_

 _"I won't even try to plead innocent. How do I plead, one might ask?" Ian went. "In this kind of situation, how can I plead?"_

 _"Well, it would seem a plea of no contest has just been entered." the Judge said. "Therefore, Ian Leland, you are, as can tell the jury, Sarah and Jim along with you and I, and of course Amelia, guilty as charged!"_

 _The judge smashed down his hammer and said: "Your punishment will be that Amelia will get to eat your brains, as she is a zombie and you constantly believed she would eat you, since she was a cat and you were a mouse, but she never did, and now, for the ultimate irony, she will enjoy a nice old helping of your brains. Get him, puss!"_

 _"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Ian screamed as zombie Amelia ran at him, bit open his head and started chowing down on his brains, saying to him as she chewed: "Isn't it just so ironic, Ian, that I saved your life, lost mine and am now taking yours in exactly the way a zombie would eat ones brains and the way a cat would eat that and all other parts of a mouse? It was part of the reason that you mistreated me the way that you did, was it not? Just because I was a cat and you were a mouse and so you decided that the 'natural predators' matter would be present despite how we'd only just met and you didn't know a fucking thing about me? Well, here's something to fucking think about in your final moments, asshole, if you can do so while I eat your brains, that is. Had you not been so cruel to me, none of this would be happening, but you would have it no way but showing me discrimination when neither I nor my parents nor my siblings had a damn thing to do with what you, a mouse, and all other mice, for that matter, might hate cats for. Perhaps I should have just let you die…it'd have spared you this pain being a prelude to what you'll experience when you'll die and go to hell immediately thereafter!"_

 _"E-RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Ian screamed as his brains exploded with blood and, in Amelia's case, with delicious flavor that was contained in that blood._

But what happened next snapped Ian back to reality.

"You look shocked. And like you're feeling pretty damn guilty, too." he suddenly heard Maligna's voice say, to which he spun around and saw the sinister canid pirate. "Must be pretty damn awful knowing that you're the reason the bitch died, huh? But don't worry…"

Maligna held out her sword and pointed it at him while saying: "You'll be joining her in hell very soon. I saw all of what the hell fucking happened and got back enough strength and energy to get back up and further do my dirty work, which I unfortunately will have to do alone now thanks to how that other captain killed my fucking second-in-command, getting back my sword just before I came over here. Those other crew members can't move because of how aghast they are and how tense they are as to whether Amelia's actually dead or not. But believe me, she is. Just like you're fucking about to be, rodent."

While she did the deed, there was another portion of a different song being played in the background that no one heard, the two of them or otherwise, and here were the lyrics.

 _Give your soul to me!  
For eternity!  
Release your life!  
To begin another time with her!  
End your grief with me!  
There's another way!  
Release your life!  
Take your place inside the fire with her!_

" **NO!** " boomed Ian as he then took out his flintlock pistol lightning quick and fired said weapon at a surprised Maligna, said surprise being why the hell she couldn't fucking react fucking fast enough to stop him from shooting at her, and he started by shooting her sword out of her hand as far as this fucking fight was concerned.

After that, he somersaulted up onto her right shoulder and pulled out his sword, saying as he then drove it into her right eye: "I was in this very fucking position on Amelia last night, bitch, saying that if she tried to eat me, I would stab her in the right eye! But despite my maltreatment of her from the moment we met forward, she's refrained from eating me, and you are far worse than all other canids there all, all humans there are, of course all mice there are and, hell, even all cats there are! I can tell all of this from your history and your behavior, as well as your personality, and if I, a mouse, can say that you, a canine, are worse than even all felines are, then you know it has to be true, much like it is quite a statement, indeed!"

"E-RAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" screamed Maligna from the sword in her eye, and then, while pulling his sword out of her right eye and driving it into her other eye after that, Ian went on: "The fact is, that if she's going to die, then so are you, and you've had it coming for a long time, anyway! She'd undoubtedly have seen you dead if circumstances didn't make it so that shit wasn't a motherfucking option, and now I'm making certain that I do the deed, instead! I can never make up for the way that I fucking treated her, especially if she does turn out to have died as it seems she did, but I can do the closest damn thing to atoning that is possible for me, and that's getting the fuck rid of you, bitch! It'll do the rest of the damn world a fucking favor, too! To think I was getting ready to turn Amelia's green eye or eyes red with blood that overlapped the green, when it turns out I should have just gotten ready to make your blood flow over your already blood read eyes! Yeah, canid cunt, it fits well with how, what and who you are! Amelia didn't deserve anything like this and neither did her family who you slaughtered, but you sure as hell do! And speaking of which, you said I'd be joining Amelia in hell, right? The only one joining anyone in hell is you when you get reunited with your fucking second-in-command there!"

"NYAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!" yowled Maligna, and she screamed: "YOU WILL FUCKING SUFFER AND FUCKING DIE IN THAT FUCKING ORDER AND IN THE SORT OF DAMN WAYS THAT ARE ON NEVER BEFORE SEEN LEVELS FOR THIS, YOU LITTLE RAT! I DON'T FUCKING GIVE A FUCKING SHIT THAT I AM NOW FUCKING BLIND, RUNT! I WILL FUCKING FIND YOU AND I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"Wrong, Maligna! Dead wrong!" Ian quipped as he then capitalized on how he'd now blinded her to control the battle and make it so that he manipulated her into getting her hands on her sword once more but jumped away at just the right moment so that she would impale herself with it instead of chopping Ian in two like she meant to do.

Pulling it out fast after realizing what she'd done and how Ian managed to trick her into doing it, Maligna yowled in agony as she barked(pun intended)her last words while bleeding out and dropping her sword, having fatally wounded herself: "I'LL FUCKING SEE YOUR ASS IN FUCKING HELL, YOU RAT BASTARD!"

Just after she fell over, Ian said to her just before the final life left her: "Yeah, and I'm a fucking supergiant. Enjoy your fire showers and lava baths, bitch!"

Running away from Maligna's corpse after that and going towards where Amelia was, lying in Jim and Sarah's arms, looking as if she was a corpse, as well, Ian told Jim and Sarah when the latter two looked at him: "Maligna's dead. I tricked her into killing herself. But I now need to know…is there any chance at all that Amelia can possibly be alive? Wait…who am I kidding? Why am I asking that question?"

He began to cry after closing his eyes, one long stream of tears coming out of each one, and he then wept: "I was so cruel to her. And now she'll never know that I'm at least sorry and will, if nothing else, go the other route despite how there's no way I can truly make up for that foolish mistake. Why…why did I have to judge her before I even knew her? Why was I such a racist idiot?"

He then looked up at Jim and Sarah after opening his eyes once again, tears continuing to come down despite how he now looked, and was, angry as well, and tossed his sword to the right and his gun to the left while also taking off his circlet and tossing it aside as well, saying: "You two can kill me if you want to. I've had it! Amelia deserved to live a lot more than I did, as it now turns out, and yet there she lies as a dead body, and here I stand still moving, breathing and talking! Yeah, Maligna's dead, too, and she certainly deserved to die more than I or anyone else here, even her crew, did, which is saying a lot in the latter case, but I'm not going to make any secret of it! I don't think I've ever felt this guilty or wanted to die this badly in my life, which is ironic, since I thought Amelia was going to make me die, given she is, or WAS, a cat and I'm a mouse, but instead she made herself die in order to make sure that I wouldn't! Well? What are you two, and, for that matter, anyone else present on this ship, waiting for? You all know you want me to be dead like she is! I want me to be dead, too! So come on! End my fucking life already!"

"No, we are not going to kill you." Jim said.

"And neither is anyone else." Sarah informed him. "You do not deserve to die."

"That, and you're clearly sorry for how you acted, which well shows that all of this opened your eyes to the truth." Jim added.

"Yeah, and those very same eyes now shed tears because of how horrible I was to her when, as it shows when one looks far into it, I had no good reason to!" Ian put in. "Yeah, you two and the rest of her crew here are now weeping for her, as well, and I see your tears along with those of your mother, Jim, but you aren't the ones who openly and unjustifiably showed her more prejudice than, chances are, any of you have ever seen in your lives! Her family doesn't have a fucking matriarch anymore, although mine still has a son! And it's all because of that son that the matriarch in question lost her life to make sure his would be salvaged! If her three kittens were here, they'd undoubtedly want to literally eat me alive while splitting a third of me apiece, and I wouldn't blame them or try to escape that well-deserved death at all!"

"You're in a lot of pain, and it is causing you to say things that you don't mean." said Jim. "If this can do a damn thing, and I mean if this does ANYTHING AT ALL, to ease that pain, we're friends again and we commend you for seeing Maligna destroyed when you had the perfect chance to."

"Maybe that would assuage me a bit if it weren't for how I can't get it out of my skull that I have the blood of a perfectly good, well-respected captain and beautiful, selfless heroine on my hands and forever will!" Ian responded. "But I'll never be able to get that out of my skull, no matter what! I'm bewildered that nobody's seen me dead or even tried to by now! What's with that, anyway, any and all crew members present? Has everyone's common sense been drained out of existence entirely like the captain's life force has?"

For the ultimate fucking irony of the best damn sort, everyone suddenly heard a tap on the area of the floor where Amelia's right hand was, and the other crew members came over to where Jim, Ian and Sarah were with her body, and all of them saw, along with the other three, that said tap was, as they also heard it again, from how Amelia's right index finger had just moved.

"OH, MY GOD!" exclaimed Jim as everyone else opened their eyes just as widely as he did his own, but only he could continue talking, as no one else could bring themselves to do that just now, and the much quieter and barely continuing beating of her heart(this caused by how hard she hit the side of the ship that she did, of course)was just a little more audible now and a tiny bit less slow, though it was sufficient so that, given that they were the closest up to her of the crew, Ian, Sarah and Jim could hear it, even if it was just barely.

Sarah felt the center of her chest, and although it was almost nonexistent, she got the feeling of a heartbeat from Amelia, and furthermore, Ian saw her eyes very slowly begin to open.

"SHE'S ALIVE!" everyone exclaimed elatedly at the same time and indeed in unison, Jim, Sarah, Ian or otherwise.

"mmmm…?" Amelia uttered, only hearing this audibly enough so that she knew what was being said, as her usually very acute hearing and eyesight hadn't fully returned yet, and she looked about and suddenly realized who was in front of her, both close up and from a few feet away, regaining her ability to speak just enough so that she could be heard, but in a whisper-level quietness sort of form, given how hard she's hit her head and was now regaining consciousness little by little, slowly but surely, what have you.

"It would appear so…" she told them, "…although I'm currently feeling quite a bit of pain…but that's only further evidence…that I survived that crash…"

"Oh, thank God!" Jim cried, flinging himself around the captain and hugging her tight. "Oh, captain! You're not dead, after all!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Amelia let out, and Jim, realizing this as a cry of pain, quickly let go and said: "I'm…I'm so sorry…I became so overjoyed that you weren't dead that I almost immediately forgot your mentioning of that pain you were in…"

"It's quite all right, Jim…" Amelia said, "and besides, it's just that bruise I got from hitting my head and the wounds I received from Maligna beforeha…MALIGNA! I paid her second-in-command back in full by killing him, but she must still be here after all that happened following my saving everyone who was in danger when that mast was about to fall! Where is she?! I have to…AAAAAGGHHHH…"

"Captain, don't try to get up." Jim said. "From the great deal of pain you're in, plus your reaction to my hug and attempting to stand again, chances are that you've got at least three broken ribs and some all but ruptured, though thankfully just badly damaged in a non-fatal way that you'll be perfectly able to recover from, digestive organs. Yeah, it's also those wounds that Maligna gave you, but it's pretty fucking clear that what you got afterwards, including that bruise on the back of your head, given it's not on your face, has put you in an even worse state of being unable to stand than that time when Doctor Doppler carried you and lay you down so that you could start recovering. So you need to do the latter while we find some way to treat those ribs and stop the bleeding here, given that it's only been a small amount of it, but we can't let it continue, since it would put your nearly lost life in danger. Fortunately, there are crew members who would be more than happy and able to help, namely all of the ones here, so you'll be fixed up before you know it one way or the other. Just relax so that the pain doesn't get worse."

"Besides, you don't have to worry about Maligna, and neither does anyone else on this ship. After all, Ian killed the evil bitch for you. Isn't that right, Ian?"

"Yes, very much so, though it was no easy task manipulating things so that I could, but I managed to pull it off. We have nothing to fear from that monster anymore." Ian confirmed.

However, it then went from that proud feeling Ian had to a full, instead of only partial, realization that he had which now kicked in to make itself only too wholly known. "Wait a second…this…that all means…! CAPTAIN! You…you didn't die…you didn't lose your life when doing the only thing that you could to save mine…" Ian gasped as he suddenly lost his ability to say anything, but in a good way, with a huge smile on his face upon seeing that she had not been killed, but then it suddenly turned into a confused, astonished look.

Amelia was surprised at this and didn't understand it, but Ian then made it so that she could understand it when he told her: "Captain…I have shown you nothing but undeserved cruelty, hostility, prejudice and disobedience throughout this whole voyage. Caused you nothing but problems. Made you angry numerous times, each one making you angrier than the last, and rightfully so in all instances. Why…why in God's name were you ready to die for me, when you could have just gotten out of the way and survived for sure while letting that mast fall on and flatten me, not to mention flatline me, after having saved everyone else?"

"Because regardless of the relationship between one or more crew members and the captain of that crew, a crew member is a crew member and a captain is a captain." Amelia replied. "And that means that the latter must do everything in their power to try and ensure former's survival."

Ian went still as his previously lessened guilt came flooding back with a vengeance, and he said: "I'm…I'm so, so, so grateful…and just as sorry…about…well, everything, ma'am. I know only too well, and indeed it is only too unquestionable, inarguable and indisputable, that there's never going to be a point where I've made up for my mistakes and how unbelievably awful I was to you. But I will do everything I can to come as close to making all of that up to you as is the least bit possible. I promise you that."

Once more, a portion of a song was being played in the background while no one heard it at all.

 _I promise you, there is nothing I won't give!  
To see this through!  
Return the soul to where it lives!  
I promise you, I'd go everywhere I've been!  
To find a way to make atonement for my sin and see!  
See your smiling face again!_

"Well, first of all, I must show you my own thanks…for getting rid of Maligna to ensure she would neither plague anyone or anything ever again nor get a chance to finish me off. As well as showing your sincerity in how sorry you are for the way you treated me. And secondly, since you are so eager to do the nearest thing to atonement that is possible for you, may I make some suggestions on how to start?" Amelia's response to this consisted of.

"No problem on all counts!" Ian smiled, glad he was getting a chance to start doing all he could to do as much as was an option to manage anything even resembling atonement in the slightest. "Suggest away!"

"First, make sure that, since I can tell I haven't lost enough blood for my life to be in danger, it stays that way by aiding everyone who is at work doing that as well by going to spots they can't reach, but, with your size, speed, agility and skill, you can, and, given how there will, of course, be bandages be given to me for that and my stuck back in place ribs once I'm doctored as so for that to happen alongside what else is needed for it, utilize said capabilities to see to it that those bandages are nothing short of as tight as they need to be." Amelia said to him.

Ian nodded and told her: "You got it, captain!" before he suddenly said: "But how the wounds will need antiseptic treatment and such along with bandaging, plus it'll hurt a lot to snap your ribs back into place, especially with the nearly ruptured organ thing…won't you need something to grip for that? Unless, of course, we've got anesthesia, that is. If so, I can get either one, depending on what's available."

"That won't be necessary." Amelia said. "One of my crew members is coming here with a sword to grip the handle of after putting the blade down into the floor, which means, by the way, that everyone should get out of the range of the floor where I'll be doing that with my left hand. And I'm afraid we don't have any anesthesia, so what I'm being given will have to do. Still, you're clearly eager to do every little thing that isn't beyond possibility, and I appreciate that very much, so you just do what we've already agreed, and if there's another opportunity for you of any kind, I'll signal you about it."

"Sounds great." Ian told her, nodding.

Just as Amelia was given her sword to grip and put the blade into place, Jim said: "By the way, just before you all start, I need to tell the captain here…I'm sorry I caused what made the mast fall in the first place. I just wanted to get rid of the bomb for there to be enough time for us to take down Maligna and her second-in-command. I didn't mean to set it off, nor did I count on what I did, which was the first thing I could think of, causing it to be set off."

"Apology accepted, and I can see what you were thinking, Mr. Hawkins." Amelia said.

"Thank you." Jim said. "If only there had been time for me to think of an alternative, but not so. Not with the likes of Maligna on board."

"Indeed." Amelia nodded, and then she said: "Okay, anyone and everyone who isn't taking part in doctoring me, stand back, because I don't think any of us want to make this more of a difficult moment than we have to, though my thanks to all of you for your aiding me when I need it the most."

Everyone who wasn't taking part in tending to her injuries nodded and backed away, and Amelia took a firm, tight grip onto the sword's handle and said: "Do it."

And so it was that, her doing all she could not to scream from the excruciating pain that was inevitably going to show itself notwithstanding, it still hurt like hell for Amelia when she was having her really bad injuries being fixed and bandaged up, and by the time that Ian had finished the entire thing up with his part in wrapping the bandages around her waist from above the bottom of her crotch to just below her breasts, already having done his first part, Amelia had almost passed out.

"It's over." said Jim, and then Sarah added: "You can let go of that sword handle."

Amelia did just that and began panting, and seeing that her bandages weren't budged in the slightest, she looked at Ian and the latter said: "Yup, I made sure of it that the bandages were at the maximum tightness and firmness they could be without cutting off your ability to breathe. It's all done. You'll get better from here, I do believe."

"At a snail-slow rate, but yes." Amelia nodded, giving Ian a smile with a glow in her green eyes, then turned her head around and said: "And thank you, all of you, for everything. I do believe it's time for everyone to get home here, myself included, so let's get this ship into motion and turn the other way from where we were going. Oh, and Ian…?"

"Yeah?" asked the mouse, and Amelia motioned her head to his flintlock, sword and circlet before saying: "I believe these are yours?"

His face lit up and he said: "Yes! Indeed, they are! Thank you!"

And so was severed the last tie to his belief that he didn't deserve to live, as he gathered them up and put them back to how they'd been before.

After that happened, with the strongest of Amelia's crew substituting for the driver, given her current condition, Sarah then asked: "Hey, wait a second…"

"What?" asked Jim, and then his mother said: "What about the ones who were going to keep the bomb locked away forever? Not that it isn't good that it's actually gone forever in the fullest and most literal way, but someone's going to have to go and inform them and explain everything."

"I'll do it." Ian said. "When we're back to where we came from, I'll easily be able to get to where they are as soon as someone makes sure I know where to go."

Jim and Sarah nodded and, once the ship had gotten to its intended destination, everyone got off and Ian did just as he said he would, while Amelia, with the help of Jim and Sarah, was able to get back into her house and the latter two explained everything to her Delbert once all three of them were seen by him along with Matey, Jib, Sunny and Tillie.

After Amelia was put into a chair in order to feel comfortable while she rested and let her healing process go further forward, Delbert then said: "My, what a story that is, indeed! I have an idea, by the way, concerning the matter of this Ian…when next you see him, tell him that I suggest he look after the children whenever Amelia and myself are out. Kittensit. Or, in the case of our son, puppysit."

"Sounds like a good idea." Jim said, and then Sarah asked: "What do you think, Amelia?"

"It is excellent advice that he can be given when next he sees me and/or either or both of you." the feline captain replied. "And given his kinds of talents, it should be, ahem, child's play for him to make sure of their well-being and being on their best behavior."

A short time later, Ian returned with the news that he had let the underground scientists know about the matter of how the bomb was now gone forever, and everyone was most pleased, just like they had been.

Afterwards, Jim informed him about what Amelia had said concerning looking after the four Doppler children and Ian said: "Puppysitting your son and kittensitting your three daughters? Sure thing, ma'am. I survived a fight with Maligna. Taking care of them will be a piece of cheesecake."

This and so much else that was so would make sure of it that the future of everyone who wasn't dead after this voyage was going to be so bright that it's beyond description, with Amelia having recovered fully and become captain once more after a while, Ian having pointed out when he saw that he needed to do so the fact that he learned the VERY hard way not to be prejudiced, judge another before you know them or anything similar to anyone and everyone who most needed to know it and loads and loads else that saw to this being so.

One of the biggest of which was that, as good fortune would have it, that there might have been criminals and such that would need to be dealt with when the opportunity presented itself, but there never was and never would be another villain like Maligna, which everyone was to be thankful for, and indeed was, along with how, regardless of what other problems might show themselves, it was, also luckily, never on the level that the now forever destroyed bomb presented, which everyone was understandably glad about, as well.

THE END

This sure was quite a story, wasn't it?

I certainly hope so!

Now, first, the moral of this story…NEVER BE PREJUDICED OR JUDGE ANOTHER BEFORE YOU GET TO KNOW THEM, NO MATTER WHAT!

Discrimination isn't just always wrong, but it's far more dangerous than firearms, blades or even bombs.

Yeah, it can't shoot you or cut you or blow you up, but in both real life and fiction, look what the hell it does in the long run!

Okay, onto the songs I put in a portion of in this fic(invariably one of the choruses, actually, just in case anyone needs to know that).

"Bad Blood" belongs to Taylor Swift.

"She Hates Me" belongs to Puddle Of Mudd.

"Thoughtless" belongs to Korn originally, but later on Evanescence had it as one of that band's songs, as well, and I like the latter version better, so I used the chorus from that version, just in case anyone was wondering.

"Inside The Fire" belongs to Disturbed.

And, finally, "Nothing I Won't Give" belongs to Vic Mignogna.

If you've heard these songs, then you know why I put the chorus of each one in the scenes that I did, and if not(or if you've heard one or some but either way not all of them), then check them out, on Youtube or otherwise, because let me tell you, in various ways, they are kickass awesome.

And you will then know why the hell I inserted them into the specific parts of this story that I did.

Now, in conclusion, I do hope this was one hell of a read for you, and I would like ratings and reviews for this fic, please!


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